Conservatives have responded to the bipartisan Senate proposal to expand thebackground check system for firearms purchases with apocalyptic, conspiratorial, and absurd rhetoric.

On April 10, Sens. Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Pat Toomey (R-PA) announced they had reached an agreement on an amendment that would require criminal and mental health background checks for those seeking to purchase firearms at gun shows and online. The proposal is likely to be added to legislation currently being debated in the Senate. Polls show that Americans overwhelmingly support requiring a background check for more gun buyers.

Levin Links Deal To Communism, Facism, Genocide

Right wing radio host Mark Levin compared the deal to policies that bring about "genocide," arguing that "the greatest inhumanities ever committed have been by centralized governments against their people."

From the April 10 edition of Cumulus Media's The Mark Levin Show:

I just want to remind you, ladies and gentlemen, that the greatest inhumanity -- the greatest inhumantity has been committed by centralized governments against their people. The greatest inhumanity ever committed has been by centralized government against their people. Whether we call it national socialism or communism or facsism, I just call it all statism to make it easy, borrowing from Aristotle to Reagan.

You and I can't commit genocide. You and I can't destroy a nation from within.

There are many sick people in this world. They're killers. They kill people. They'll be killing people today. They'll be killing people tonight. I wish it wasn't so, but it is so. There are many evil people on the face of this earth. The way we try to deal with them is through law enforcement. The way we try to deal with them is culling them out from the rest of society and punishing them.

But the more that we put down the law-abiding people, the more we herd and shepherd the law-abiding people, the more information we gather on the law-abiding people, put them in central government databases and all the rest, the more we're destroying our society.

We are free people. We are a good people. These politicians seek to define you and me, by the evil people. And so they project these images onto you and me, and then they try and pass laws to control us, and deny us of liberty.

Erickson: Christians Will Be Denied Guns Due To Beliefs

Fox News contributor Erick Erickson claimed in a series of tweets that the mental health provisions in the agreement would allow a doctor to say someone was "crazy for believing in resurrected Jesus" which would lead to "liberal docs" barring the faithful from gun ownership.

Bolling Fearmongers Deal Will Lead To National Gun Registry, Which Deal Actually Bans (Again)

Fox News host Eric Bolling argued that the deal was "knocking on the door to a national registry." In fact, creating a national registry is already illegal and the proposal reaffirms that illegal status andincreases the penalty for creating a registry.

As the Huffington Post reported, "In addition to a potential jail sentence of 15 years, officials who create a gun registry or misuse federal records on gun sales or ownership would face a monetary fine."

Sean Hannity falsely claimed that the auto industry rescue under President Obama was a failure and that "every single person" working in the industry would have kept their job had the government allowed the big three auto companies to go bankrupt. In fact, more than a million jobs would have been lost without the rescue, and bankruptcy would have likely resulted in liquidation of the auto companies.

Hannity pushed the falsehood on the October 15 edition of his nationally syndicated radio show while talking to a caller. After the caller correctly pointed out that there were jobs saved due to the auto bailout, Hannity responded: "Every single person would have kept working if they had gone bankrupt. Every single solitary person." He continued:

You act as though Mitt Romney was going to go in there and shut down all of the plants and that cars would no longer be produced. That's not what bankruptcy does. No, you're wrong, it wouldn't have happened that way.

This is false. The auto industry, after steadily hemorrhaging jobs, hit a 10-year low in June 2009. Between December 2008 and June 2009, the federal government loaned the auto industry $85 billion. Shortly after the $85 billion was loaned, the auto industry began its recovery and steadily added more jobs with sales of the Big 3 automakers reportedly "surging." The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) provides a clear picture of the increase in jobs after the bailout:

While the tragic shooting at a public event for Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) was done by a mentally unstable individual, and while there is no apparent connection to any political party, the current political rhetoric has reached an unacceptable level. Media Matters revisits instances in which conservative media figures ignored or minimized security threats against Nancy Pelosi in order to attack her for using a military aircraft. In fact, the Department of Defense provided the plane as a security measure after the 9-11 attacks -- a measure that was also provided to former GOP Speaker Dennis Hastert.

Right-wing media outlets are parroting the attacks of an anti-LGBTQ hate group on Connecticut’s openly gay comptroller, Kevin Lembo. Lembo recently sent the American Family Association (AFA) a letter asking the group to submit written documentation certifying it complies with the nondiscrimination regulations governing the Connecticut State Employee Campaign for Charitable Giving (CSEC), which allows Connecticut State employees to contribute to qualifying non-profit charities through payroll deductions. Lembo’s office has since been “flooded” with emails and phone calls from AFA supporters.